Introduction: Verse 9 seems to be definitely the words of God Himself. I think finishing what God says at the end of yesterday’s passage. The voice at the beginning being God’s voice – ‘A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the LORD blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.’ After that because of pronouns used (he and his) I think that under the Hand of God we have Isaiah’s thoughts about what we will be thinking about when we ‘“Behold (y)our God!”
9 Go on up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Behold your God!”
10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him. – God is mainly seen by reading history about what He has done. Or by opening our eyes and seeing Him in both His Creation of the world and His power seen in the results of His actions! The end of this passage seems as if Isaiah knew the book of Job very well!
11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young. – sadly most people who have grown up in cities in the post industrial area know nothing about caring for sheep. I have been blessed in that I grew up on my Grandfather’s sheep farm during WWII!
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD,
or what man shows him his counsel?
14 Whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before him,
they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. – I had a young person recently tell me that God was the Creator but ‘he had just mixed up, as it were a big bowl of soup, and left it to see how it turned out.’ Maybe when you read the words ‘Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.…. All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.‘ You might be excused for thinking that the young man’s talk was correct. But it is comparative talk not absolute speech! We, compared to the whole Universe, are a speck of dust but God still cares for the birds, and knows us so well as it were as to the extent that he knows the number of hairs on my head! He sent His own partner in the Trinity, Jesus, to seek and save us like lost sheep!
Isaiah 53: 6 – All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Prayer: Help me to understand more and more ‘How Great Thou art!’